New York-based photographer Jade Doskow has spent the past ten years photographing the leftover architecture, art and landscaping from past international world’s fairs for her series Lost Utopias. A family trip to Seville sparked the idea for Jade as she was taken through the acres and acres of half-abandoned postmodern pavilions, left over from the 1992 Seville World’s Expo. “It really captured my imagination, the obvious regional pride in this site, but the site in a state of limbo, awkwardly placed between former glory and lack of direction,” says Jade. Three years later while at graduate school, she started thinking of the city again and began researching other world’s fairs. “What I discovered was a remarkably meaty subject, an interdisciplinary tour de force of nationalistic pride, the future through utopian design and architecture, the inherent racism of these events, and the context which ultimately shaped each of these temporary, ambitious affairs,” Jade explains.

Beginning with the 1939 and 1964 sites in New York and then the 1893 Columbian Exposition site in Chicago for logistical ease, Jade then spent five weeks shooting sites in Europe. After five years of shooting, Jade then spent more time photographing all the sites in North America, 25 in total. The photographer has now set her sites on Barcelona, Milan, Vienna, Shanghai, and Yeosu among others, as well as targeting “specific buildings that represent key goals in architecture and design”. “One of the most fascinating parts of this project is that these locations are constantly evolving, whether through human design or not, and I now revisit sites to see how they are changing over time in response to the contemporary urban needs of a particular city,” says Jade.

Jade Doskow: Lost Utopias

Jade’s style feels honest, simply documenting the sites as she sees them, allowing the fantastical structures to speak for themselves, making sure she offers glimpses into their stories. “It’s always a goal to make a picture that does more than just point something out, as well as create something that is not the ‘postcard’ image. Many of the structures in Lost Utopia are now tourist attractions – the Space Needle, Eiffel Tower, Unisphere to name a few – and so have been packaged and captured in an expected way,” explains the photographer. “I spend several days at each site to study how that structure interacts with the day-to-day functions of the city in which it is situated.” As a result in some images, the imposing structures appear obscured by trees, protruding out of back gardens or surrounded by traffic.

Jade’s ongoing series is a thorough investigation and catalogue of the ostentatious architecture we’ve surrounded ourselves with over the years, and it’s the relationship we have with buildings that she hopes to highlight. “In our day-to-day lives, there is often a disconnect between the individual and the greater urban environment. We go our daily routes in often the same manner each day, and often the greater context of the city, the planning of parks and blocks, is hard to filter and experience through the mayhem,” says Jade. “Through Lost Utopias I hope to bring a greater awareness to the intricacies of city planning and infrastructure, the design of the urban environment, and how to smartly and sustainably plan for the future without leaving behind a trail of ill-used architecture.”

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“I think with photography you can create a whole fantasy around yourself, so when I design a set and develop a character for a picture, I try to create an entirely new reality for me and the people I’m portraying, hopefully, a reality that is better than the actual one,” explains México City-based photographer Andrés Mañon. With several commissions for the likes of i-D Mexico under his belt, Andrés’ work does exactly as he intends, building elaborate worlds full of over-saturated, yet altogether compelling characters.

A little while ago, art director Anna Sullivan spotted an old vintage postcard featuring stilt walking shepherds. Stilt walking shepherds! Curious, as anyone in their right mind would be, Anna started digging into why these shepherds were atop stilts — which we now only associate with childhood games and circus performances — to herd sheep.

It’s Nice That’s Ones to Watch shines a light on 12 emerging talents who we think will conquer the creative world in 2018. From a global pool of creative talent, we have chosen our 2018 Ones To Watch for their ability to consistently produce inspiring and engaging work across a diverse range of disciplines. Each of our selections continually pushes the boundaries of what is possible with their creative output. Ones to Watch 2018 is supported by Uniqlo.

“The way it currently stands, we as queer Arabs don’t have extensive (if any) documentation of our queer past and tend to refer to the West for reference and history,” explains Beirut born-and-raised photographer, filmmaker and editor-in-chief of Cold Cuts magazine, Mohamad Abdouni. Through both his commissioned and personal work, Mohamad is looking to change this fact, documenting the community he is apart of, and the culture it is beginning to thrive within.

Through a series of events, housemates Julia Falkner and Lorena Hydeman found themselves styling the 11-year-old nephew of a friend in clothes from their suitcases, photographing him as he discovered a new world of gender expression. The experience proved formative – both for young Kai and the duo – and it sparked what would become Julia (a photographer) and Lorena’s (a stylist) recently released series Blah Blah Genitals.

“This summer was just a dream, and I hope that these images help to capture a little bit of that,” says photographer Max Miechowski of his latest series Burgess Park. “After moving to southeast London in 2017, Burgess Park became one of my favourite places in the city,” he continues. “The atmosphere there is like nothing I had experienced before, and I felt drawn to spend time in the park and to photograph the space and its community.”

It’s been a long year, hasn’t it? And your eyes are tired, aren’t they? We can help. Why not soothe those sore lids by taking a visual stroll down recent-memory lane with 25 of our most read photography pieces of 2018? From KangHee Kim’s satisfyingly shimmering images of celestial streetlamps to Sam Gregg’s gloriously vivid snapshots of life in sun-soaked Naples, all of life this year gone is here.
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Film, all things considered, is a pretty good medium. Over the past 12 months we’ve covered all sorts, from documentaries detailing the daily lives of London’s North Korean immigrant community to a chef-heavy music video by the much-loved rapper Loyle Carner. We like film. And you evidently do, too, if this Top 25 film-related It’s Nice That pieces from 2018 is anything to go by.
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We count ourselves incredibly lucky here at It’s Nice That, largely because we come into contact with such superb examples of illustration on a daily basis. As you can see from the features below, which were the 25 most read on the site over the past 12 months, the bulk of what comes our way is good. Really good. Lap up the creme de la creme below. You deserve it. After all, you got these pieces where they are today.

You can’t have failed to notice how much attention It’s Nice That focuses on graphic design. This year we have, as ever, cast a gaze over everything from big name commercial work to the fantastic self-initiated projects that feel as fresh now as they did the first day they arrived perfectly formed in our inbox. Practitioners and enthusiasts alike, consider this a crash course in the year that was in graphic design.
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Animation’s in our blood at It’s Nice That. Ever since we first crawled into virtual being all those years ago, we’ve never stopped looking for the brightest and best of the animated world. If you’re looking for a fun way to soak up some creative juices over the Christmas period, why not peruse the top 25 animation articles we’ve published this year? You won’t regret it.
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From Burberry getting a new logo courtesy of Peter Saville to Marina Abramović promising to electrify herself with one million volts in the name of art, via Taylor Swift butting heads with Spike Jonze over allegations of copy-catting, and the release of a new typeface that claims to be able to boost your memory, a lot has happened in the creative world since we said hello to January back in, well, January.

As we start thinking about boarding packed trains to various parts of the country, letting It’s Nice That have a bit of time to itself, we’d like to take this opportunity to share with you, dear readers, the 100 most read articles we published in 2018. We’ve got news, work posts, and features – all of which explore the breadth of contemporary creativity. Thanks for reading!
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We’re not sure about you, but there’s something about this time of year that makes everyone here at It’s Nice That want to curl up on the sofa with a decent long read. Handy, then, isn’t it, that we’ve curated this bumper batch of the best features we’ve published on the site in 2018? They’re practically crying out to be consumed with a fistful of Pringles and an ill-advised second glass of snowball.
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As the year draws to a close and we reflect on the creative comings and goings 2018 has brought, York-based illustrator Adam Higton and French illustration duo Maxime Prou and Adéle Favreau, otherwise known as Atelier Bingo, have been working away interpreting the 12 months of the year into an A4 poster. Collaborating over Dropbox Paper, the group’s final illustrative interpretation will be available for free at our monthly event, Nicer Tuesdays.

“Illustrating data is hard,” says Mona Chalabi. Given that Mona is a data journalist who specialises in illustration, she’d know. Over the past few years, London-born, New York-based Mona has produced work for the likes of the International Organization for Migration, the Bank of England, and superstar statistician Nate Silver’s number-heavy editorial platform FiveThirtyEight.

Quickly coming out just as we reach the end of the creative year is Kim Gehrig’s newest advert, Viva La Vulva for Libresse. And, in true Kim style, it’s arguably one of the most joyful, inclusive and confidence-boosting pieces of advertising of 2018.

Emulsion is a new publication documenting cutting-edge arts and culture. Designed by the London-based design studio Our Place, the magazine is founded on pluralistic objectives with the hopes of pushing boundaries through its imaginative design and content. Its first issue is packed with artist interviews, photography, fashion, music, original artworks and opinion pieces from the likes of some of It’s Nice That’s favourite creatives including Jonathan Castro and Ida Ekblad.

Hwashin Choi’s illustrations reject the flat and digital styles of working that are so popular today. Instead, she repurposes traditional modes of realist drawing for a contemporary audience, paying close attention to how light falls on objects and the characterisation of objects and facial expression.

If ever you wanted to examine the human relationship to, and reliance on, the very resources which make up our world and how this fundamentally shapes everything we are, you need look no further than the Caspian Sea. Located at the intersection of Asia and Europe, it is the world’s largest inland body of water and one of the oldest and most important oil and natural gas-producing regions on Earth.

Over the past 12 months, Google has been delving deep into the fascinating world of machine learning with articles on Google Design, plus new open-source projects and products. With AI becoming an increasingly prevalent part of the creative world, this should come as no surprise. Also unsurprisingly, the work it’s carried out in the field is innovative, exciting, and stimulating.

2018’s Review of the Year is supported by Google Design. Google Design, for the uninitiated, is an initiative led by an uber-talented selection of developers, designers, and writers at Google. They’re all about working across teams to create top-notch content and to produce events that champion creativity and showcase the brilliant design work Google does day in and day out. Having celebrated a Milan Design Week debut, amongst other achievements, it feels like Google Design has pushed on from an already exciting position.

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Emily Oberman can hardly believe her luck. The designer, a partner in Pentagram’s New York office since 2012, is a self-professed Harry Potter “super fan” and for the past three years has been working to bring some of the newest projects in the wizarding universe to life. Put simply, it’s been a dream project to work on something that, as she puts it, “entertains the world”.

We all have an idea of what fashion in Tokyo entails. Harajuku girls, manga-inspired makeup, doll-like dresses embellished with lace, Muji minimalism and bold, Comme Des Garçons silhouettes. Our perceptions of Japanese fashion from the West understand boldness and visual excess, yet there are innumerable nuances within Tokyo’s fashion scene as seen through labels such as Pugment.

As we near the end of our look back at 2018, we’ve enlisted journalist, broadcaster and editor Kieran Yates to look back over the key moments which shaped the creative (and wider) world over the past 12 months. From logo-heavy football shirts to Love Island, these are some of the stories that got us talking.

Shinwoo Park has been running the graphic design studio Paperpress since 2016 in Seoul. Working across a variety of disciplines wherever graphics are concerned, from the tongue of a shoe trainer to pin badges and poster design, Paperpress locates the point where “graphic design and description overlap” to create expressive designs that suit each client.

“I think with photography you can create a whole fantasy around yourself, so when I design a set and develop a character for a picture, I try to create an entirely new reality for me and the people I’m portraying, hopefully, a reality that is better than the actual one,” explains México City-based photographer Andrés Mañon. With several commissions for the likes of i-D Mexico under his belt, Andrés’ work does exactly as he intends, building elaborate worlds full of over-saturated, yet altogether compelling characters.

Our final speaker at Nicer Tuesdays November was Leipzig-based illustrator, Anna Haifisch. After seeing Anna speak at Eike König’s After School Club in Offenbach during July this year, we quickly realised the illustrator was a must to speak at Nicer Tuesdays before the year was up, also doubling up as the first comic reading we’ve had at our monthly event.

Joining us at Nicer Tuesdays November was Yuri Suzuki, shortly after the designer’s slightly surprising announcement that he was the newest Pentagram partner. Even Yuri notes how the decision for him to join the design partnership was a surprise to himself, recalling how when the initial conversation began his first question was “Why!?”

A little while ago, art director Anna Sullivan spotted an old vintage postcard featuring stilt walking shepherds. Stilt walking shepherds! Curious, as anyone in their right mind would be, Anna started digging into why these shepherds were atop stilts — which we now only associate with childhood games and circus performances — to herd sheep.

It’s Nice That favourites Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared created by the fun-filled directors Becky and Joe, will head to Sundance Film Festival next year. The Blinkink creative duo will premier their Youtube-hit series at the largest independent film festival in the US this January 2019.

Boiler Room is yet again shedding light on important social issues in a part of the world that is little known to us. The second film for its Contemporary Scenes series is To Live & Die in Manila and sees music orientated artists from the Filipino capital emotively express their frustrations under the bloodbaths incurred by the president of just over two years, Rodrigo Duterte.

New York based producer and DJ Anthony Naples has been an It’s Nice That favourite ever since we first heard the effervescent Mad Disrespect on some sweaty dancefloor somewhere back in 2012. We were hooked from that half-remembered moment on.

Yung Hua Chen’s photography is seductive and cinematic. The Taipei-based photographer captures alluring portraits for fashion designers and also, purely for the love of the medium. Recently, she’s been shooting her lover Chihtian Shih. She tells It’s Nice That, “he inspires me in many kinds of ways. He’s an actor and plays many different roles that give him different life experiences.” Chihtian’s brooding good looks are seen in all types of situations; dappled in a dusky sunlight, walking the streets of Taipei, peacefully sleeping still in his clothes.

For the past ten years, graphic and spacial design studio Julia has been producing work for clients from the cultural and commercial sector, including everything from typefaces to books, magazines, exhibitions, posters, websites and identities. Having been formed in late 2008 by Valerio Di Lucente, Erwan Lhuissier and Hugo Timm, Valerio and Erwan (who have been running the studio since May of this year) are celebrating a decade of Julia. We caught up with the pair to find out a bit more about how their work has taken shape over this time.

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